The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has enlightened the residents of Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State on the need to protect telecom infrastructure in their communities.
The NCC Zonal Director Hajiya Amina shehu said this while addressing the residents at a sensitization programme in the LGA on Thursday.
Hajiya Shehu said the programme was aim at sensitizing the stakeholders as well as creating awareness of the important of telecommunication infrastructure within the communities.
She said the advent of GSM had improved the economy and social welfare of Nigerians.
She also pointed out the challenges that were confronting telecommunication services in the country mainly arose from damage to telecommunication infrastructure such as base transmission station(BTS) and fibre cable.
she added that the facilities have always been targeted by vandals and thieves, who in the process of stealing them damage the facilities.
Hence, she said, telecommunication facility are collectively owned infrastructure that are crucial and critical in term of service delivery.
According to her ‘’telecommunication has been one of the integrals part of our busy life with provision of services ranging from information, entertainment and many over a broad range of media platform, it is worth exercising over the past sixteen years we have experienced a tremendous growth in this sector and a significant contribution to Nigeria GDP’’.
She added that the efforts of the commission at protecting the facilities could not be achieved without the active collaboration of the relevant stakeholders.
Mr Gbolahan Daramola of the NCC’s Technical and Network Integrity department reiterated said some activities bring negative impact to the telecommunication services availability such as telecom cable vandalism(fiber cuts),illegal shutting down of base stations, battery and generator theft, and illegal restriction of access to telecom facilities.
According to him, telecom infrastructure vandalism could reduce quality of service/quality of experience, and also discourage investment In network expansion by operators.
He said it could also impact negatively on the investment climate in Nigeria by way of foreign direct investment, adding that this will lead to reduction in rate at which new jobs opportunity are created in telecom sector as investment will be impacted.
The Executive chairman of karu LGA, Hon Akala Samuel Gajere represented by Dr Yusuf Asibat commended the NCC for choosing karu for creating an awareness program on sensitization and protection of telecom infrastructure.
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